In this blog post, we will introduce practical experience and data-based thinking skills that can be effectively utilized in a self-introduction letter when applying for a marketing analysis position.

 

Tell us about your most difficult experience and how you overcame it.

“Efforts to overcome an unexpected traffic accident”
When I was in my second year of high school, I was suddenly involved in a traffic accident on my way to school. There was an intersection on my way to school, and as I was crossing the crosswalk, a truck suddenly hit me. The truck driver was sleepy, and several other people, including myself, were involved in the accident. I fell into a coma and was hospitalized for a long time, and I still have no memory of that period. I was in a coma for a week, and eventually, with my parents’ consent, I underwent a difficult surgery and survived. Even after the surgery, I was unable to attend school for almost a year due to rehabilitation, and I spent my important senior year in high school in the hospital. While working hard to recover in the hospital, I did not give up on my studies. I had always wanted to study advertising and marketing, so I did not give up easily.
I underwent rehabilitation treatment and exercises, and I also studied in my hospital room. I became close with my friends from the hospital, and my friends from school often visited me and took care of me. They told me about what they were learning at school and what was happening there. After I was discharged from the hospital and returned to school, I had to attend classes with students who were younger than me, but I didn’t think of it as a negative thing. Instead, I thought positively and formed a study group with them and actively participated in club activities. Originally, I had restrictions on how much I could participate in physical activities, but I enjoyed school life by participating in basic gymnastics and exercises. In this way, I did not give up after the unexpected traffic accident, but worked hard to overcome it, and since then, I have developed a strong will to overcome any trials that come my way.

 

Tell us about the organization you felt most a part of and your experiences working there.

“I felt a sense of belonging while participating in a travel club in college.”
I didn’t feel a strong sense of belonging to my department in college. I was studying marketing and advertising, and there were over 100 students in my department, so I didn’t have many opportunities to get close to so many people at once. So, instead of my department, I started to feel a sense of belonging to a club, and I made friends from other departments through my activities in a travel club. Many of my club members were studying different subjects, but because we were so different, we were curious about each other and became close friends. When planning trips, we didn’t just go on any trip, but decided to go on themed trips that included socially meaningful activities. So, my close club members and I planned trips, made schedules, planned itineraries, and included specific activities.
We often went on trips for environmental activities. We planned trips that included rivers, valleys, and mountain climbing courses to campaign for environmental improvement. While traveling these courses, we participated in necessary environmental movements in the local area and wrote articles about the results to inform people. In fact, there were students in our club who were student reporters, so they recorded the entire trip and shared it with the outside world. In addition to trips for the environment, we also went to Jirisan Mountain to provide educational services and traveled to Incheon and Ganghwa Island for fishing trips. Through these various trips, we had the opportunity to participate in a wide range of activities, including educational activities, volunteer work, environmental activities, and promotional activities for rural and fishing villages. Through these experiences, I developed a strong sense of belonging with my friends in the club and our team, and I became more determined to become a more socially beneficial person.

 

Tell us about your experience of setting higher goals for yourself and overcoming challenges.

“Overcoming limitations through inbound work.”
I studied marketing in college. I wanted to apply what I learned in my major, so I decided to try my hand at practical work. The job I took on was inbound work, which is usually known as telephone consultation. Of course, the work was not directly related to what I learned in marketing, but it was similar in that it involved responding to and communicating with customers. In particular, the company I worked for manufactured and sold electronic devices and home appliances, so I tried to explain the products to customers in detail. When receiving complaints and answering questions, I tried to remain rational and provide objective information.
During consultations, most of the questions were about purchasing the products. In the process, some customers asked for detailed explanations about the products, and some expressed dissatisfaction with product defects. Some customers said things that didn’t make sense, and no matter how rationally I tried to respond, they became very emotional. If you can respond kindly even in such situations, you are probably suited to consultation work, but I actually felt that I had my limits. I tended to immediately question things that didn’t make sense, and I couldn’t help but express my emotions. However, this made it impossible for me to continue working in consultation, so I tried my best to overcome my emotional responses. In particular, I wrote a manual for all exceptional situations. Even if the situation was unreasonable, it was still within the realm of predictability, so I wrote down the details and studied how to respond. This allowed me to plan my response even in unavoidable situations, and I was able to respond much more rationally.

 

Tell us about your experience of successfully improving something in a different way.

“Learning a service mindset while working at a mobile phone store.”
When I was about to graduate from college, I started working at a mobile phone store. Since I majored in marketing, I was assigned to work in the advertising and marketing department. Even though I was working in the marketing team, I first had to learn about mobile phones and participate in sales activities. In the process, I met customers face-to-face, explained the products, and tried to understand their needs in order to recommend the right products for them. However, when I first started working, I didn’t have enough knowledge about mobile phones, carriers, and rate plans, so I struggled with my work. Some customers even told me that I didn’t seem suited to face-to-face consultations. Even when I had acquired as much knowledge as possible, I still felt awkward when customers came in, and I couldn’t speak well.
So, I thought that I couldn’t improve without making changes, and I started thinking about new ways to deal with customers. In fact, when I was working inbound and doing phone consultations, customer requests were often fairly standard. So, even when doing face-to-face consultations, I tried to categorize situations and plan everything in advance, which was a problem. This was because meeting people face-to-face and conversing while observing their facial expressions and nonverbal cues was completely different from telephone consultations. So, I decided to stop trying to plan everything so meticulously and instead respond flexibly to each situation. Customers come in all shapes and sizes, some are logical, some are suspicious, and some are dependent, so it was better to observe each customer and respond accordingly. As a result of my efforts, I was evaluated as a person who was well-suited for consulting and sales, and my performance improved, with a success rate of over 80% for the challenges I took on. The company recognized my abilities and gave me a position in field marketing, where I worked enthusiastically and received bonuses.

 

Please tell us about your goals after joining the company and how you prepared for them.

“Consumer analysis, strategy analysis, and market analysis.”
I applied for a position as a marketing analyst at SK Telecom, a leading telecommunications company. These days, research work in the marketing field is becoming increasingly important. In the marketing field, research work, which can be summarized as data collection and analysis, is considered more important than strategy formulation. The primary task of marketing research is to collect primary data, but the secondary task is to analyze the collected data, write reports, and process the data. Therefore, this process requires analytical data such as consumer analysis, target analysis, marketing strategy analysis, and market analysis, and data analysis skills are essential. I can say that I am a research expert with sufficient analytical and data collection skills in these areas. Although I am still a new employee, I have sufficient capabilities, so I believe I have plenty of room for growth.
As I work as a research analyst in the marketing team, I will always maintain a learning attitude as I perform basic public relations tasks. In order to perform these tasks, I majored in a related field and gained experience in customer service and customer information analysis during my college years. In addition, I improved my language skills while studying abroad in the US, and I believe that I have gained an open perspective on the work through my marketing training there.